Changing Global and Social Determinants for Nuclear Power

The choices we make about energy research and development in the years ahead will affect economic well-being, environmental health, and international security everywhere in the world for most of the 21st century. From an economic standpoint, this is well understood: affordable energy is an indispensable ingredient of economic development. Energy costs typically absorb 7 to 10 percent of the cost of living; when they rise above this range, they cause inflation and recession, and they frustrate the economic aspirations of the poor. From an environmental standpoint, energy is a major contributor to dangerous and complex environmental problems at every scale, from local wood smoke in Third World villages to regional scourges of smog to acid precipitation in developed countries to the global challenge of climate change from accumulating greenhouse gases. From the standpoint of international security, energy issues include the potential for conflict over access to remaining supplies of inexpensive oil and gas, which are concentrated in a few regions, some of them politically unstable. Another volatile issue is the link Changing Global and Social Determinants for Nuclear Power John P. Holdren Nuclear energy will be an important component in a strategy to address climate change and other challenges. John P. Holdren is the Teresa and John Heinz Professor of Environmental Policy and director of the Program on Science, Technology, and Public Policy in the John F. Kennedy School of Government, and professor of environmental science and public policy in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Harvard University. between nuclear energy technologies and nuclear weapons capabilities.

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